How to hire an artist.
polycounter lvl 18
http://kaitol.com/how-to-hire-an-artist/
Read this and prepare to vomit. I hope this guy goes out of business unless he is being ironic in some way.
Read this and prepare to vomit. I hope this guy goes out of business unless he is being ironic in some way.
Replies
Back when I was doing design work I ran into countless of people that ran small business' and thought and acted exactly like this douche. Karma is a bitch however and these weak business practices almost always guarantees that they turn out a shit product and don't stay in business for long.
Sadly so have i.
Then you missed this gem..
I wonder if it is this guy.. http://xdragonx10.newgrounds.com/news/post/379864
being 16 would explain alot
this guy'll go far
Yup, until he hit the bottom of the cliff someone pushed him over, and then takes a picture and publish it as art called "Rock douch in red".
There's really nothing unreasonable in that article. He's not suggesting anyone rip off an artist by not paying them. Maybe his tone is not entirely professional, but there's a lot of either no-brainer stuff in there, or things we all know. This guy is offering his experience hiring artists for (probably crappy) flash games. He's offering suggestions for finding the cheapest work. Which is, by the way, a pretty common practice in business. As long as his advice is approached with integrity, there's nothing terrible about what he says in this article.
Consider it a blessing that even with a cutthroat mentality in play, in the freelance field you have the options of naming your price. Most jobs on earth they just tell you "You work this long for that much."
people try to get every little bit of anything for themselves and do not care the slightest if someone else would've had a far greater benefit from it than they do.
everything is about "having" and not about "needing".
If the artists are taken advantage of then it is kind of their own fault. If their willing to organise their own business they have to know how to do their own business.
Problem is that business side of art is seldom discussed, which should be more or less common knowledge among artists, like perspective and anatomy is. He managed to get away with that attitude and ways of doing business because artists had no idea how to work and how much/how to charge.
I think a lot can be improved by mere education.
This hurt my head. NO fucking way is doing a friend a favor the same as doing your profession.
You can work in this incredibly small industry for a while, or you can spend time wondering why no one will work with you, again.
No doubt you can make money with sleazy business tactics, but its hard to make a good name for yourself working like that. Especially when you blog about your "hot tips". Just because someone can make money a certain way doesn't make it right. There are plenty of ways to be respected and successful, it often means being a touch more creative and not so quick to take the easy sleazy way out.
There are alot of people though, it would take him along time to burn all the bridges that are available to him.
Simple karma and whatever likely wont come to anything. The only likely thing is an increase in artist resolve and business nouse, in his wake.
Markets work pretty naturally. If you don't like practices like this, go to school, get a real job, be one of those professional artists he doesn't want to hire. You'll never bump into eachother. Plenty of people will be happy to work for him, he doesnt need you and you dont need him.
Live and let live, guys.
except he's not intending to enslave anyone, he's intending to pay them money to draw pictures.
How is he "taking advantage" of them? Finding non-working artists, asking them what compensation they want for their work, then paying them that fee. What a jerk, right?
But honestly he's no worse than someone who combs junk yards looking for antiques to sell. He technically pays for it, he just doesn't pay what its worth. If you don't like it, let your doberman loose and fill his tailgate full of buckshot.
I can only speak for myself, but when I was just starting out I wasn't really aware of how to price my work and ended up being paid very, very poorly, even for beginner's quality work. I'll fully and completely admit that it was up to me to figure out how to do it properly, but it's a rough way to learn.
Well, had they gotten a bigger number they could've picked someone else than you, someone who would couldn't figure out a proper pay.
This guy is pissing his most rotten and foul morning urine into the last parts of clear oasis water we have, and he openly blogs and tells other devs how to properly urinate in it too, and if they don't do that they're stupid.
Welcome to the indie gamedev world
I know I have a year to go before graduation, but i'm for sure gonna be reading contracts and exploring interviews without diving head in first into a trap.
From a completely objective standpoint this person would not hire the artist version of himself.
It also looks as if he advocates using the most cut throat capitalistic principles possible when looking for people to do work for yourself, and that this is a "positive" or "good" thing to do, but that those very same people whom he is telling you you should hire should not apply these principles, and instead act like a resource to be exploited. If they do attempt to behave in a similar manner it is a "negative" or an example of a poor person to employ.
This is the truth when it concerns capitalism and how it works and frankly, the truth is hard hurts but it doesn't make it any less real.
Didn't Google pull some similar shit on graphic designers by asking for new designs but not willing to pay for their logos?
http://www.thejonjones.com/2010/08/09/how-not-to-hire-an-artist/
Absolutely wonderful rebuttal to all the points of the prior article.
The main difference is that, even when the project fell through, we ended up as friends and are currently working to start a webcomic together, just for fun.
The real problem isn't the actual method he's advising - it's nothing new, and it's not like anyone needs to be taught how to act like that - and more the manner in which he's advising it.
That said, the rebuttal was awesome.
He's a sixteen year-old kid.
He probably picked up this ruthless capitalist act from shit he read on the web, or what Daddy does at the office, but let's not lose sight of the fact that he's just a kid. Maybe when he grows up, he'll get some sense and realize that acting that way will do him no favors in any industry, especially one as small as game development.
Or maybe he'll end up an executive at Zynga.
Edit: I think that the reason he is able to get away with this is that he is working with 2d pixel art. Back when games went 3d the pixel art community was gutted. The vast majority of professionals either learned new skills or left the professional pool altogether. Now that pixel art is booming again, it very well may be that the existing market is simply incapable of keeping up with demand. If that is the case, then this sort of tactics may make sense for the time being. i.e.: pros really are overcharging and delivering sloppy work on delayed schedules because they are flooded with orders.
This should be enough /\ you must have been with my previous "employer".
Tim Langdell of Edge Games http://www.destructoid.com/trademark-troll-since-when-did-ea-become-the-good-guys--168999.phtml